Next Friday (2/17) we’ll be releasing a beta version of the March release. Normally we do this through the preview build which can be downloaded directly in the application, however for this release we’re releasing a little bit differently. This release will come with some minor new features and bug fixes as we normally provide through our monthly release cadence, we’ll update this post next week with that list and a link to the beta version.
The reason for the Beta version is we’re making a change to how we store and manage job execution history. The change is not backwards compatible, which means existing history will no longer be viewable after upgrading. This should not be an issue for our user since ReportWORQ history is only retained by default for 30 days, however we don’t want this to come as a surprise. Also, this update was a large enough modification to the application that we want to allow customers to opt-in to upgrade early to help identify any environmental issues that we may not see in our testing environments.
TL;DR;
Beta version of the March release coming next Friday
Installation process will be slightly different for the beta
Job History changed and existing history will not be viewable after upgrading
Below is a Beta download of our March version that we are releasing early through the forum for customers that have agreed to help us verify changes coming next month. You do not need to update to this version unless you would like to help validate these changes before the official release on March 6th.
ReportWORQ patch files are installed in the Software Versions screen of ReportWORQ. Since this patch is not officially released you’ll need to download the patch file from below and then choose the option to Upload Patch File in the ReportWORQ Software Versions page. After the patch is uploaded and processed you will be able to click the Play button to run this new version.
Important Notes
Storage for Job History and Writeback History has changed and is not backwards compatible. Items that are currently in your Job History or Writeback screens will no longer be available after upgrading. If this presents an issue please contact us in support to discuss what options are available.
Please make sure Enable Out of Process Execution and Compress History Files are both checked in the Settings screen.
CHANGE: New history format (old history will no longer be accessible)
FEATURE: New option to run an individual writeback file
FEATURE: New Delete All option
Job Execution
CHANGE: New history format (old history will no longer be accessible)
CHANGE: New process for reporting status during job execution
BUG: Data Validation lists referencing other worksheets fail when merging source reports
Job Editor
CHANGE: Test now runs out of process
BUG: Allow for long wrapped text in Distribution fields
FEATURE: New Combine Key feature for combining emails
FEATURE: New test options for generating w/diagnostics
FEATURE: New Cell Value HTML Range option
Settings
FEATURE: New Custom Fonts Folder option for PDF export
What to be on the look for?
We have 930 passing unit tests with this version, however environmental issues and specific customer configurations sometimes reveal issues that are hard detect in our testing environment. We want make sure that editing, organizing and running ReportWORQ jobs still behave as expected, run in the expected timeframe and report status efficiently. Most of the changes for this release relate to running distribution and writeback in a separate process and how those details are stored on disk. This also effects the Test screen in the job editor.
Please feel free to drop any feedback directly on this post or if preferred at our support desk.
We’ll change that text back to red when a re-generate is required. It wasn’t intentional that we lost that conditional style.
The Test screen runs “out of process” now, like production jobs running the test will run the job in a separate process and after the output is saved in the user’s temporary storage it will appear in the screen. So some delay is expected, but I’ll take a look and make sure that it’s not delaying for any other reason. The benefit to this change is execution performance, a lower memory footprint and memory recovery.
Regarding the fix for Data Validation Lists in Excel Ranges and for everyone’s benefit. We changed the ReportWORQ behavior for combining several source reports into a single report. The old behavior was to copy worksheets one at a time, which is what was breaking formulas or validation lists that reference other worksheets. The new behavior is to copy the entire workbook as a single operation. We don’t expect any issues with this change, however if you’re combining workbooks in ReportWORQ pay attention to things like styles, chart data, formulas that reference other worksheets and such.
